Manicure at What Age?

Manicure at What Age?

I am going to start right off by saying, “I don’t have daughters”, so maybe that is why this seems strange to me, “but, why are little girls already getting...

I am going to start right off by saying, “I don’t have daughters”, so maybe that is why this seems strange to me, “but, why are little girls already getting mani/pedi’s with their moms?” I don’t mean teen girls, I am referring to the 3-12 year old crowd.

I see these little girls in my office with painted fingers and toes, and I often ask them, “who painted your fingernails?”. I thought the typical answer would be “my mom, or my big sister”, but it is quite often I hear, “I had them painted at the nail salon”. Of course, I then have to ask, “oh, was this for your birthday?”, and many of them do say it was, but many also say, “I go with my mom all the time.”

WHAT? I can remember my first manicure was on the day before I was married. It was a big deal, and i think my parent’s agreed to it because in those days we all had a picture of our hands with the new wedding bands on. Do you have one of those, husband and wife with hands overlying one another? I still love that picture, and yes my nails were perfect. i also remember that it took me the 6 months prior to finally stop biting my fingernails, in order to even have nails to manicure! Nail biting is one habit that took me years to break, but out of necessity for wedding pictures I stopped and never went back.

I watched several little girls getting mani/pedi’s the other day. They sat there, perfectly still at the age of 4 (my boys would have played in the pedi bowls I am sure), enjoying picking out polish and choosing flowers to be painted on their toes (to which I overheard one mother saying, “do you know how much this is costing?”). Odd comment considering the fact that the mother had obviously brought her daughter and how can a 4 year old understand how much professional nail care costs?

I just think that parents need to show a bit of restraint in indulging their children in such things as mani/pedi’s on a regular basis at such a young age. Around my town, 4-5 year olds take over nail salons for birthday parties with “fake champagne” and cupcakes served while soaking their feet. That sounds more like a bridesmaids event to me. I can only imagine that the expectation becomes that getting a mani/pedi is the normal for young girls, even before they begin to understand the costs involved. How about the idea of letting a teen earn babysitting money to use for her first mani/pedi? Must be my age!

Dr. Sue Hubbard is an award winning pediatrician and medical editor for www.kidsdr.com. She is a native of Washington, D.C. who travelled south to attend the University of Texas at Austin and never left.Read More